Another Nadel business is sold

An aircraft hangar business in Georgia owned by Ponzi schemer Arthur Nadel will be sold for $1.2 million to compensate hundreds of burned investors.

But those victims will see just $325,000 from the deal, because Nadel owed nearly $900,000 on a bank loan that was obtained to acquire the business.

Nadel took money from his Sarasota-based Ponzi scheme to help buy Tradewind, which has operated since 2007 at the Newnan-Coweta County Airport, southwest of Atlanta, according to receiver Burton Wiand.

Tradewind owns five buildings that contain a total of 30 T-hangars for private aircraft, one box hangar, and leases for five other box hangars. All are rented to aircraft owners.

The receivership has since returned $53 million to those burned in the scam. Wiand said he is preparing to distribute another $5 million.

He has continued to operate Tradewind, collecting $20,000 per month in rental income from hangar tenants, while paying out roughly $8,100 in rent to the governing airport authority and bank loan interest.

Nadel, who died in prison in April 2012, had a penchant for aviation-related investments and enterprises.

He also owned the Venice Jet Center, a fixed-base operation at Venice Municipal Airport that he acquired for $2.9 million. Wiand sold the jet center in 2010 for $550,000 cash and transferred a $1.9 million bank loan to the buyer.

Wiand has been trying to sell Tradewind for years, but bids always came in for less than he thought it was worth. A recent appraisal valued Tradewind's assets at about $830,000, according to court documents, so Wiand agreed to sell when a Newnan business called ER4 Holdings LLC offered $1.2 million.

"This offer is significantly higher than a recent valuation obtained by the receiver," Wiand stated.

Nadel borrowed $1 million from Bank of Coweta -- now Synovus Bank -- to buy Tradewind in 2007. Under the sale terms, Synovus will receive about $875,000 to pay off that debt.

Five Tradewind-owned airplanes and a helicopter, valued at less than $5,000 combined, were sold earlier.